College in a Suitcase

Don’t you hate that? When you bookmark something and the blog isn’t found? At any rate, the next one that should be on our series also doesn’t exist anymore. So I’m not sure what I should talk about. I should skip onto the next one, but I feel like this is here for a reason.

Today was a long day. I had a rough draft due and I only partially finished it, but the teacher said that was okay.

My fiancee is coming tomorrow and I’m so excited – that’s all I can think about!

New blog review coming soon – I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Miss Lissy

Today I woke up and I felt like today sucks. My back is killing me. It hurts even worse than it did yesterday. And right now, I just have to sit in this chair and work. And I don’t know what to do about my back – how to make it feel better or anything like that.

So I’m not doing a blog review today. Sorry.

Miss Lissy

It’s a Monday morning and I am tired, despite waking up before my alarm went off. I woke up and I knocked stuff off my bed and then I picked it up and fell back asleep again. Too early for me, Jose. Today will be a long day. I can almost guarantee it.

So that makes it time for another lovely review!

Name of Blog: Blogging Tips
Blog URL: http://www.bloggingtips.com/
About the Author(s): (When there’s this many people on a Monday morning, I let you find out for yourself what each is all about). Kevin from Blog Themes Club, Sarah from Stuff by Sarah, Jonathan from Plagiarism Today, Patty from Patti Stafford, Kristen from Kristen Nicole, Rob from Rob Starr, Patricia from Writers Rants, Charnita from Social Web Tools, David from InfoMusing, Lee from The Funk House, Larry from Story Fix, and Sharon from Get Paid To Write Online
What I Think of This Blog: It does the whole continue reading thing, but I think it redeems itself by having valuable content and also by clearly setting up what will be after you click the link. That makes it easier to decide whether or not you will want to click the link.
Example of a Topic Covered: Five Reasons Why College Students Should Blog I think the title speaks for itself
Relevance to College Students: I think if you are a college student who blogs I think it is very relevant.
Does This Blog Make It To My Blogs to Read Bookmarks?: Yes! For once one of those continue reading one’s does.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Miss Lissy

My friends Paul and Emily just left. I wish they could have stayed longer, but sometimes there’s nothing you can do about that. I love being around my friends who share my faith. It fills me with such a warmth and such a real love that no one else can replace. And yes, Paul, you may think I’m in trouble because I don’t like being teased but yet Nick teases me and I’m marrying him. Well, I secretly think it’s cute . . . most of the time (aka almost all the time unless I’m crabby or it’s a sore subject).

But it kind of makes me lose my motivation for blogging. I wish I didn’t have to work so I could just spend whatever time Paul has left here with him and Emily. But I know they probably want some time to themselves, just the way that I would want some time with Nick to myself if I only got to see him every so often (which I do).

But I will persevere. Onto my series.

Name of Blog: Chris Garrett on New Media – Attract More Raving Fans with Business Blogging and New Media Marketing Advice
Blog URL: http://www.chrisg.com/
About the Author: Chris Garrett is a professional – that’s how many things he’s a professional of. He writes/has written for a lot of different places. He is addicted to the internet (it says so in his bio!). He likes snow sports, one thing that he is not a professional at. And he’s also addicted to Flickr (or at the very least has an unhealthy obsession). And he writes books. And I can’t believe he put this at the bottom, but he was born in Calgary, Alberta! Love that city. But now, apparently he lives in the UK. Why, Chris, why? He has a daughter, a cat, and a dog. And a wife of course. But apparently, they’ll all move back to Canada for good eventually. That makes me smile.
What I Think of This Blog: I think it has a lot of really helpful information for marketing and professional blogging. However, it has a somewhat hard time holding my interest.
Example of a Topic Covered: How I Built My Authority Blogger Site It’s all about how he built his membership site.
Relevance to College Students: If you are looking at professional blogging and or marketing – you want to be following this.
Does This Blog Make It To My Blogs to Read Bookmarks?: No, not really. I’m not ready to be looking into professional blogging.

Miss Lissy

Haha, sometimes my friends are so comical. And sometimes, they’re just sick.

But anyways, you didn’t come here to read about how sick-minded my friends are and I don’t want to talk about it. Not all my friends are sick minded, but the ones who are are very sick minded. Sometimes I don’t even understand it, but I understand that they’re making a sick joke and I don’t want to know more.

Anyways, today is another blog review day.

Name of Blog: The Freelance Hub
Blog URL: http://www.thefreelancehub.com/
About the Author: It doesn’t really have one . . .
What I Think of This Blog: It’s a big gathering of different freelance jobs. Very good resource if you want to freelance.
Example of a Topic Covered: Fitness and Nutrition Writers Wanted
Relevance to College Students: I think if you want to freelance and you’re an upperclassmen, this could be very helpful.
Does This Blog Make It To My Blogs to Read Bookmarks?: Not yet – give it a year or two.

Miss Lissy

So, today’s blog from our series has been removed by it’s authors. I could go on to the next one, but I feel like it’s a sign. Well, not really actually.

At any rate, it’s a Friday morning and I picked up an extra desk shift and now I’m asking myself why. I am soooooo tired. I want to go back to bed. I’m supposed to go to the abortion clinic to pray tomorrow, but I might just stay here and sleep because I’m going to be on duty tomorrow night and I’ll need the sleep.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. Tonight we’re doing our haunted trail and our weather looks craptastic. Joy. I hope it goes well.

Miss Lissy

Today my school’s Students for Life group did a day of silence, representing all the babies who die because of abortion who will never have a voice. My teachers were much more understanding than I thought they would be. It’s my friends and people who I know who aren’t understanding. This is a cause that matters a lot to me. Abortion is murder – there’s no way around that. I wonder if I would get the same scrutiny if I was silent for GLBT issues. There’s no way to know that.

At any rate. I digress. I should apologize to the owner of this next blog if I have offended them by including those highly political thoughts in with their review and if they want this review retracted, I will move it to their own post. If not, I’ll go on having my free speech.

From our series . . .

Name of Blog: The Copywriting Maven
Blog URL: http://www.copywritingmaven.com/
About the Author: She’s a copywriter with a lot of experience. That’s almost the only thing I could find about her.
What I Think of This Blog: I think she’s witty but it’s pretty video heavy. I almost always want something that I can read at work and this blog is not it.
Example of a Topic Covered: Last Friday Funny Video Early: Most Wonderful Time of the Year It’s a video – I’m at work so I couldn’t watch it.
Relevance to College Students: If you like videos and you want to be a copywriter – have at it!
Does This Blog Make It To My Blogs to Read Bookmarks?: No – too many videos for me to be able to read it on a consistent basis.

Have a good day everyone!

Miss Lissy

So I’m working on getting things back to normal. Today is my first day back at work, I’m seeing the counselor today, and I’m also getting back to my regular swing of things in blogging. I have a lot of homework that needs to be done after missing class yesterday, but I don’t want to miss again tomorrow. I slept for 12 hours on Monday night because it was the first time that I could actually sleep and sleep well since the accident. I missed all of my classes. But it was necessary. Anyways, onto reviewing today’s blog, with a title that I find ironic.

Name of Blog: Good Karma
Blog URL: http://karmawilson.com/goodkarma/
About the Author: Karma grew up with only 3 TV channels with a single mom in Idaho. She loved to read and even tried to read while biking! (I did this – the trick is training wheels karma – they keep you balanced so you can read). She loves fantasy and historical fiction. Her mother was a professional writer and Karma considered it something she never wanted to be. After they got a computer was when she wrote her first children’s book which was released in 2002. She’s had over 30 books published! (Which I think is super awesome). Her and her family have horses (which I also think is cool).
What I Think of This Blog: I like it. I mean, I don’t want to write for children at this point, but that might change. I think she has a fun voice and to me at least she is very successful so I like it.
Example of a Topic Covered: Now I must read this book! It’s about a book that’s making headlines in good ways and in slightly controversial ways.
Relevance to College Students: It’s probably not very relevant unless you plan on writing children’s books.
Does This Blog Make It To My Blogs to Read Bookmarks?: Hmmmm – I want to say yes on the one hand because I really like it, but at the same time, I have so many blogs. Oh well, I will say yes.

Miss Lissy

The internet’s down as I write this post. But it’s something that needs to be written. If those two sentences don’t tell you enough, I’m taking a break from the series to write this post.

This isn’t an easy post to write – and sometimes I think that I should wait to write it until I’m a little more removed from the situation. The events which I’m writing about happened yesterday. And yes, it does make me cry to write this. This was the scariest thing I have ever experienced.

Yesterday started out as a good day. I got to see friends who I hadn’t seen in a long time. I got to see my fiancée who I hadn’t seen in a while. I got to be in his arms and get a hug – that was great. Right before I left, the five of us took a picture in front of the pet shop. In that picture I’m smiling and I’m happy. And I was. I really was. Nothing could go wrong. I was on top of the world.

We said our good-byes. We left, headed in very different directions. I had been driving for about an hour, on my way back to school. I started getting sleepy, but this is nothing that hadn’t happened before and I was like, I’ll be fine.

Well, I will tell you the truth. I was not fine. People can talk all they want about drinking and driving and texting and driving and yes those things are dangerous, but what I did yesterday, was also very dangerous.

I fell asleep behind the wheel. Going 65 on the freeway. I’m pretty sure my cruise control was on, but I don’t remember exactly – we had been slowing down before, Packer traffic, so I don’t remember if I turned it back on or not. I was driving in the right hand lane. I crossed one whole lane of traffic, while asleep, without hitting anyone. I woke up as I was going over the rumble strip. I tried to correct and get back on the highway, but I was already too far in the ditch and the ditch was too deep, my car swerved into the ditch and rolled with me in it. I feel so irresponsible because the accident was my fault.

If I had pictures other than the ones on my phone, I would post them. Actually, I might have been in the paper my mom said. If the internet was working, I would look it up. I tell you one thing. When I crashed, I got up and I got out of that car. Looking at my car, you would not know that I was all right. I have a small cut on my finger and I’m badly bruised and very sore, but I’m alive. I was wearing my seatbelt and I tell you the truth, God must have been with me.

The electrical part of the car still worked enough for me to get out of the car. The music was still eerily playing – David Ball was in the CD player at the time. The electric windows still worked thankfully and the people who stopped were able to help me get out. I literally walked away from the crash.

And I think of how lucky I am. And how God was with me. God must have been watching over me because I think back to like Zach and Ryan, who lost their lives last summer in a car accident and Ashley, who also lost her life in a car accident less than a week after we all graduated from high school. I wonder why I lived and walked away without a scratch when they did not. God was with me, there in that car, and he must have greater plans for me.

To all the people who stopped to help, I want to say thank you. Thank you for stopping to help and calling 911. My cell phone was telling me that it could not complete the call when I was dialing 911 from inside my car and I was so scared. You were there right away, calling 911 and helping me out.

I was about an hour from my home, but I wasn’t even injured enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room. When I said I walked away from this, I meant it – literally. I asked, “Well, what do you do with me, since I’m not from around here and my parents won’t be here for like an hour.” They took me to Culver’s. I couldn’t stop crying. I had gotten a hold of Nick earlier, shortly after I crashed and when they took me to Culver’s, I called him. I stayed on the phone with him the whole time I was there. He told me to just keep talking and he saved me from completely losing it. He kept me calm. I am so thankful that the Lord has given him to me.

We went to where the car had been towed to get my stuff out of it. The car is a wreck. The front passenger side window completely shattered. The windshield on the driver’s side has huge cracks. The whole driver’s side is lower than the rest of the car. The trunk popped open in the process and all my stuff flew out. I’m typing this on my computer, which despite being thrown from the car is okay. Completely okay.

And I think of all the little lucky things, like how my friends were in my car earlier so that means I moved my stuff to the trunk and it wasn’t flying around in the car as I crashed. I never hit my head, on anything. I was wearing my seat belt. God was with me, protecting me.

I’ve learned a bunch of things from this. All things I already knew, but all things that needed to be emphasized.

-I learned that God is great and He is with me. I already knew that, but yesterday I really saw His hand. If you want to ask me if I prayed when I realized I was crashing, but I had just woken up, my only thought was what do I do. I’ll be honest, I didn’t pray and I wish I had, but I was still trying to figure out how I ended up over here. It all happened so fast and so slow all at once. God was still with me though.

-I learned to wear my seat belt. There’s only been a few times where I haven’t worn my seat belt but I will never do that again. If I hadn’t been belted in, my injuries would be much much worse and it’s likely that I would be dead.

-I learned that if you are tired, you should stop and sleep. Don’t think you can make it. Because yeah, you will make it sometimes, but there are also times you won’t. And let me tell you, waking up to that was the scariest thing ever. I couldn’t sleep last night because of it. I closed my eyes and I just saw it happening over and over again. It was about 2 AM I think before I fell asleep and I tried to sleep at 11:30 and the only way I could was to fall asleep on my friend’s futon watching Aladdin.

-I learned that people are still good. I was shown so much kindness yesterday. It’s unbelievable how many people stopped. Sometimes I get down on society because we feel so cold, but we are usually genuinely good to each other when it matters. Accidents and tragedies bring communities together.

-I learned that my parents love me. I didn’t hear it a lot growing up, but their actions showed me yesterday that they do. I love them – I hope they know that and I hope I never take them for granted again.

-I learned that life is too short. I don’t know how to expand on this, but I don’t want to put my dreams on hold. Some of them have to be, like my wedding, because I can’t be married to Nick and have him be so far away. If something like this happened again, I would want him to be there as my husband. I mean, I still wanted him to be there, but it was manageable. I still want him to be here in fact. But don’t put off things for tomorrow that you could do today. Especially in telling people you love them.

So that’s all I have to say. That’s what happened, that’s what I learned. I hope you all are well. I hope you know how much it has helped me to write down all of this.

Miss Lissy

This post will be my 100th post. Wow – that’s all I really have to say. It seems like a lot, but at the same time not a lot. I dunno. Tonight is a busy night at work. But never fear, I will bring another blog review from this lovely list.

Name of Blog: PureBlogging
Blog URL: http://www.pureblogging.com/
About the Author(s): It was started by David Culpepper but it’s other contributers include Michael Martine, Steven Snell, Sharon Hurley Hall, Steven Finch, Misti Sandefir, Jim Smoot, Kevin Ott, and Kathryn Vercillo.
What I Think of This Blog: I really like it. I think it’s very helpful if you’re a blogger. They do the continue reading on some posts, but not on all of them. That’s a little more forgivable.
Example of a Topic Covered: DMOZ Editor Accused of Extortion It’s quite interesting.
Relevance to College Students: I think that if you’re a college blogger this would be very, very helpful.
Does This Blog Make It To My Blogs to Read Bookmarks?: Yes

Have a great day

Miss Lissy